I would hesitate to use that broad a brush and state that none had any 
degree of Indian blood. I wonder what DNA test would show? I am sure that 
some of these people had Native ancestry.  During the period you are 
referring to racial identification was made by eyeballing people. If you 
looked Indian, white, or African that is who you were. My brother took a 
paternal line DNA, and it came back that our paternal lines are Columbian 
(from Columbia South America) Indian. Yet, to look at my father, and 
grandfather, you would probably say they were negro.  Now mind you, my 
grandfather was born in South Carolina, the son of ex-slaves. So there were 
Indians who were enslaved along with blacks. This is what needs to be 
mentioned while we are discussing this topic.

Anita


>From: Paul Heinegg <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history         
>      <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Indian Schools
>Date: Sat, 19 May 2007 11:24:45 -0500
>
>Harriet E. Rasnick asked,
>Wasn't there a school for Native Americans in the Patrick Co
>VA/Rockingham Co NC area at one time?
>----------------------
>
>Most of these type schools were for "invented" Indian tribes; ie., 
>light-skinned descendants of African Americans who were free since colonial 
>times and had attended school and church with whites before the Civil War. 
>In 1885 when North Carolina was almost equally divided between Republican 
>and Democrat, the former free persons of color objected to attending the 
>segregated schools with the former slaves. Robeson County held the swing 
>vote for the state and had a very large population of former free persons 
>of color. Democrat Hamilton McMillan invented the name "Croatan Indians" 
>for them and allowed them their own "Indian" schools. This swung many of 
>their votes to the Democrats. Once Jim Crow laws were passed and the former 
>slaves disenfranchised, the Croatans were no longer a force in politics. 
>Whites started calling them the pejorative "Crows," so they changed their 
>name to Cherokee Indians of Robeson County in 1913, then Siouan Indians of 
>Lumber River in 1934-1935, and they were recognized as Lumbee Indians in 
>1956. They had a three-caste system with three sets of drinking fountains, 
>seating areas, rest rooms, etc.
>
>Anthropologists James Mooney and Frank G. Speck fell for this and travelled 
>around the Southeast "discovering" lost tribes.
>
>Soon after the establishment of the Robeson County Indian schools, a group 
>called "old issue negroes" formed their own separate school in Person 
>County, North Carolina, on 2 February 1887. It was discontinued about 1896 
>but reestablished in 1901: listed as "Mongolian" through 1906, "Cuban" from 
>1908 to 1911 and listed as "for the Indian race" in 1912. You can find 
>further information with citations in the introduction to my site: 
>http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/introduction.htm
>(Use your browser to search for Lumbee and Person County)
>Paul

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